text:
Reading The Lord of the Ringsthis time as an adultremains an overwhelming experience
By Gene Edward Veith
Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart."
That blurb on the back cover of the old Ballentine edition of The Lord of the Rings captured exactly the way I felt, as a 14-year-old having just finished the last book of Tolkien's trilogy. The comment seemed so apt that the name of the critic stuck in my mind: someone named C.S. Lewis. Not too long after that, I was browsing in a bookstore and saw his name on a book of his own: Screwtape Letters. I opened it up and saw that it had been dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien. Surely, I had to read this book by someone whose taste in literature was so much like mine. Eventually, I would read Lewis's Mere Christianity, which opened up to my broken heart the sword-piercing beauties of Christianity.
Still later, when I was in college, an off-handed remark about "the one ring" helped me connect with a young woman who turned out also to be a big Tolkien fan. We ended up getting married. Which led to having our children.
How odd that a work of fantasy should have such an impact in my real world. While many Tolkien fans re-read the trilogy over and over, I never did, being content to keep savoring my first impression. Now that a trilogy of movies is coming out based on Tolkien's sagathe first of which, The Fellowship of the Ring, is scheduled for release on Dec. 19I resolved to ready myself by reading the books again.
Then I was 14; now I am 50. Then I was just waking up to a love of reading; now I am an English professor, a professional reader (something else I probably owe to the impact of the trilogy). Then my world was a lot smaller and my experiences much more limited than they are now, after 36 years of living. Reading it again after all those years, I could remember how the different events in the story struck me the first time and compare that with my reactions as I am today. I know I understood it better this timeseeing it not as just a children's book but as a work that raises issues only adults can fully graspand I can say that it was just as good and maybe better the second time around.
"The world changes,
and all that once was strong now proves unsure. How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?"
The Two Towers
Fittingly, my reading project had an auspicious beginning. I started The Fellowship of the Ring in earnest the week after the Sept. 11 attacks. I was taking my first plane trip after the hijackings, one of the few passengers in a big airliner bound for Detroit, uneasy, frisked at the gate, still overwhelmed by the magnitude of the assault upon our country.
Here I was, reading about those complacent, ordinary, homebound folks, the hobbits, whose comfortable lives were interrupted by the Shadow. In the weeks ahead, as our nation geared for war, and then as our forces attacked, what I was reading had a special resonance. It was not just that Tolkien kept referring to two towers, or the suspense that kept building through the first two books and the weeks after the attack that would finally break out in a spectacular war. Here was the city of Gondor, a once great civilization in palpable decline, having to regain its history and its nerve. Here, for all of the military exploits of great warriors, the real heroism was on display in ordinary folks that the high and mighty had always overlooked.
As I was flying in that airplane under terrorist alert and reading my book, something else compounded my intimations of mortality: turning 50. The AARP sign-up cards had already arrived in the mail, I was feeling my age, and I had been finding myself fantasizing about retirement. But before we landed in Detroit, I read about how both Bilbo and Frodo began their adventures on their 50th birthdays. I left the plane oddly exhilarated.
"Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the GoldenWood as in his own house."
The Two Towers
As Lewis tells the story of his conversion in Surprised by Joy, it was Tolkien's witnessingand his argumentsthat led him away from atheism into the Christian faith. Those stories they both loved, drawn from legend and fantasy, about a Dying God, about resurrection and redemption: These are not just myths, Tolkien argued. They became true in the Jesus Christ of history. Jesus is really who He said He was, God in the flesh, who died and rose again to bring human beings new life.
When Lewis accepted this truth, he became a great apologist for the faith. Tolkien, on the other hand, kept writing fantasy.
Some Christians are leery of fantasy, even of Tolkien's, which contains wizards, wraiths, and the demonic Sauron, who is, in fact, the Lord of the Ring. Might reading this sort of thing lead to meddling in the occult? In the debate over Harry Potter, defenders but also some critics of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular children's novels about a school for witches are saying that The Sorcerer's Stone is no different from The Lord of the Rings.
But there is a difference. As Richard Adanes, author of Harry Potter and the Bible, points out, Tolkien's Gandalf is not a wizard at all, in the Harry Potter sense; rather, in the Middle Earth universe, he is a being roughly equivalent to an angel. In The Silmarilion, in which Tolkien gives the background and the details of his imaginary realm, he begins with a Genesis-like creation story, along with a fall. He writes of one God who makes all of Middle Earth and fills it with beings with naturalnot occultpowers of their own.
As pastor Joel Brondos points out, the themes of the two fantasies are practically opposites. Harry Potter is about an outcast boy who seeks and acquires power. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, is about the rejection of power. The whole point of the story, on which the whole plot depends, is that the power of the Ring, because it has been forged by the Dark Lord, must not be used. Though the temptation to use its occult power is great, to do so corrupts the user, even if it were used for a good end or to defeat Sauron. The user would become a new Sauron. The forces of goodGandalf, the elvesknow that the Ring must be destroyed but that they themselves dare not touch it. So they ask the weak but strong-charactered hobbits to go to Mordor, the lair of its evil maker, to destroy the Ring by throwing it into the volcanic crack of Mt. Doom.
The trilogy is filled with Christian motifsresurrection, providence, sacrifice, the promise that a king will returnbut it is not (like The Chronicles of Narnia) an allegory, a genre Tolkien disliked. Tolkien called what he was doing a "sub-creation." God created the universe so human beings, made in His image, can imitate Him, though faintly, by making creations of their own. Whereas God's creation is real, an author's creation (or, rather, "sub-creation") is fictional, existing only in the mind and the imagination, though potentially meaningful and valuable nonetheless.
"Orcs, and talking trees, and leagues of grass, and galloping riders, and glittering caves, and white towers and golden halls, and battles, and tall ships sailing, all these passed before Sam's mind."
The Return of the King
In his essay "On Fairy Stories," Tolkien deals with the charge of "escapism," the objection that fairy tales, fantasies, and stories like his merely provide escape. The assumption, he said, is that escaping is always a bad thing. For someone who is imprisoned, the most healthy thing he can do is to escape the walls that shut him in.
Non-Christians are indeed in a prison. They think that nothing exists beyond what they can seethe hard, stone walls of the material world. They have no understanding of spiritual realities, that good and evil are not mere psychological states but objective truths, that they can be freed from their bondage of sin into an everlasting life wonderful beyond their conception. They need an evangelism of their imaginations.
What The Lord of the Rings offers and conveys is a Christian sensibility. It gives readers a taste of the attractiveness of Goodness and the repulsiveness of Evil. It evokes a sense of mystery and longing, a sense that this world has cosmic significance, as does the part each of us is called to play.
"'Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?'
'No, they never end as tales,' said Frodo. 'But the people in them come, and go when their part's ended. Our part will end lateror sooner.'
'And then we can have some rest and some sleep,' said Sam."
The Two Towers.


text:
by Anthony Sizemore, Student Sports Reporter
The Alice Lloyd Eagles traveled to Powell, Tennessee on Tuesday, November 19th, to play the Crown College Crusaders. The Eagles won this matchup, 84-56.
Coming off a loss at home to Milligan College, the Eagles looked to bounce back in a battle with Crown. The first half saw a very competitive contest as the lead changed hands multiple times. However, it was the homestanding Crusaders who took a 32-31 halftime advantage.
The Eagles decided to switch gears and upped their game in the second half. Alice Lloyd obliterated Crown in the last stanza, outscoring the Crusaders by a score of 53-24. It was another opportunity for head coach J.R. Hammond to give everyone on the team playing time.
The co-leaders for ALC in scoring were Trevor Combs and Kuron Mitchell with 12 points. Mitchell also had 5 rebounds while senior guard Isaac Wilson produced 11 points and led the team in assists with 4. Cody Stumbo contributed 10 points to the final tally.
Next up, the Eagles travel to Kentucky Christian University on December 3rd for a game that tips at 7:30 PM.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Skip to Main Content
City Services
Doing Business
Living & Visiting
How Do I...
Notify Me
Notify Me
Type your email address in the box and select
Sign In
If you want to receive text messages enter your phone number and select
To subscribe or unsubscribe click (email)
(text) next to the lists to which you wish to subscribe/unsubscribe.
Notify Me
Alert Center
Bid Postings
News Flash
Please sign in to subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscriptions
Email Address
Notify Me Sign In
Sign Out
Your Profile Information
Email Address
I prefer to receive HTML emails when available
I would like to be able to receive text messages on my mobile phone
Phone Number
Ex: 555-555-0123. Standard text messaging rates apply.
Unsubscribe from All Lists
How did you hear about this service?
Save Profile Information
Notify Me
List Name
Advisory Body Membership
Updates on Advisory Body openings, recruitments and appointments. To stay up to date on the activity of these bodies, please subscribe to the corresponding "Agenda" notification lists.
Agenda - City Council
Sign up to receive notification that a new Council agenda has been posted. Regular meetings held the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.
Agenda - Conference & Visitors Bureau Board
Sign up to receive notification that a new CVB agenda has been posted. Meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 3:00 p.m.
Agenda - Parking Advisory Committee
Sign up to receive notification that a new Parking Advisory Committee agenda has been posted. Meets 4th Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m.
Agenda - Parks, Recreation & Beautification Commission
Sign up to receive notification that a new PRBC agenda has been posted. Meets on the 1st Thursday of every other month at 6:00 p.m.
Agenda - Planning Commission
Sign up to receive notification that a new Planning Commission agenda has been posted. Meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m.
Bid Postings
Sign up to receive notification that a new Bid opportunity has been posted.
Chapman Estate
City Newsletter
Sign up to receive notification that a new Clam Chronicle issue has been posted. The Clam Chronicle is published on a quarterly bases - February, May, August, and November.
COVID-19 Updates - Pismo Beach
Information for the Pismo Beach community about COVID-19.
Receive information about Elections specific to Pismo Beach, including information for voters and information for potential candidates.
General Information
Topics of interest not fitting other mailing list categories.
General Plan / Local Coastal Plan Update
Sign up to receive information about the General Plan / Local Coastal Plan (LCP) update, including the Housing Element, Circulation Element, Low-Cost Visitor-Serving Accommodation Study, Sea-Level Rise Study, and more.
Pismo Voice (Community Outreach)
Pismo Voice is an online platform designed to engage citizens in a conversation about important City of Pismo Beach projects and programs, including the biennial budget and goals. Please visit www.pismobeach.org/pismovoice to sign up.
Public Hearings & Legal Notices
Sign up to receive notification that a Public Hearing, Legal Notice and/or Press Release notice has been posted.
Sign up to receive announcements from the Recreation Division.
Shell Beach Streetscape Project
Website Updates
Information about new features that are available on this website.
Alert Center
List Name
City Office Closed to the Public
Effective March 19, 2020, City Hall, Corporation Yard, Veterans' Halls, and portions of the Police Department are closed to the public in accordance with the County Public Health Officer order. Essential City Services will continue in operation. You can call or email the City for assistance.
Bid Postings
List Name
Construction Services
Construction services for construction projects.
Environmental Services
Environmental remediation, lead removal, underground storage tank removal, asbestos removal and other related services.
Information Technology
For new equipment, software, hardware, and services for information technology
Office Supplies and Equipment
This includes copier paper, furniture, faxes, and so on.
Miscellaneous category
Parks & Recreation Equipment and Services
Goods and services for parks, pools, golf courses, recreation center and other recreation facilities.
Professional Services
Consulting services excluding architects, engineers, landscape architects and surveyors.
Public Safety
Goods and services related to the operations of the Fire and Police Departments.
All vehicle types including but not limited to sedans, fire trucks, snow trucks, and other light and heavy trucks.
News Flash
List Name
Website Updates
Information about new features that are available on this website.
For Residents
In the News
Pismo Voice
Community Outreach Regarding City Goal Setting
Planning / Engineering
Live Edit
Agenda Center
Dinosaur Caves Park
Camping on Pismo Beach
Pay My Utility Bill
Access Pismo (Public Records)
Document Center
Document Center
Resource Directory
News Flash
Notify Me
Opinion Polls
Staff Directory
Press Releases
Municipal Code
Employee Self Service
Agendas & Minutes
Find and view meeting information
Police Department
Dedicated to serving the community
Tourism Info
Visit Pismo Beach
Citizen Request
Code Enforcement, Compliment, Etc.
Notify Me
Sign up for notifications
View job opportunities
Government Websites by
Arrow Left
Arrow Right
Slideshow Left Arrow
Slideshow Right Arrow


text:
From the Editor's Desk: Christen Olivarez on Somerset Studio
Artwork by Paula Bogdan
We are joined today by our wonderful editor-in-chief and director of publishing, Christen Olivarez. She's here to give you a sneak peek at this month's issue of Somerset Studio, our flagship publication that is well into its 15th year of production. Somerset Studio features mixed-media artwork from extraordinary, talented artists from around the world. A go-to source for paper crafting instructions for new crafters and professional artists alike, this publication always includes a stellar repertoire of projects, business tips, and creative inspiration.
We're celebrating this milestone with a peek into the current November/December issue. Take a look at Christen's favorite features, and help yourself to a good dose of creative therapy below.
It goes without saying that I enjoy putting together each issue of Somerset Studio. Sure, it's a lot of work to organize art selections, contact all of the contributing artists, have photography handoffs, and proofread, proofread, proofread, but gosh, it's fun. The November/December 2012 issue, though, was special. It's very hard to put it in words, so I'll resort to my go-to method of explaining things: a list.
Artwork by Stephanie Hilvitz
- Seth Apter's 5 x 5 Project: I truly feel like this article is like no other we've ever published. Perhaps it's because it was based on a book, "The Pulse of Mixed-Media," that is like no other. When Seth first contacted me with the idea for the article, I was quick to say "Yes!" to it. I knew Somerset Studio readers would really enjoy having insight into the creative processes of some of their favorite artists.
Artwork by DJ Pettit
- Artist Portfolio on DJ Pettit: I've been a fan of DJ's work since I began working at Stampington & Company more than five years ago. There is something captivating about her use of color and photography in her work. When I realized we hadn't profiled her in the magazine yet, I asked Ricë Freeman-Zachery to get in touch with her right away. You'll be fascinated by her story.
Artwork by Sue Pelletier
- Playing With Plaster: Have you had the pleasure of chatting with Sue Pelletier? She is as funny as she is kind and talented. The way she incorporates plaster into her work is so imaginative. Her work has such a whimsical feel to it that I can't help but smile when I see it.
Artwork by Michelle Ward
- Holiday Projects: I'm just crazy about the holidays. In fact, as I type this, I'm also wondering how soon is too soon to put up my Christmas decorations? In this issue, we share a new take on the traditional advent calendar that will have you saving all of your mini mint tins. When I placed the piece out for art selection, just about everyone in the company walked past it while exclaiming how clever it was. There are also some awesome ideas for ornaments and other décor items inside.
I could go on and on about why I love this particular issue of Somerset Studio, but I think you get the picture. I think it's one of our most artistically diverse issues, and I'm sure you'll agree.
Thanks for the recap, Christen! If you're curious to see more and can't wait to get your hands on this issue of Somerset Studio, explore more articles and order your copy here.
Posted: Thursday, November 8th, 2012 @ 3:05 pm
Categories: Mixed-Media Art.
Tags: Somerset Studio.
Subscribe to the comments feed if you like.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.


text:
Welcome to Arizona
Arizona—also known as the Grand Canyon State, thanks to its best-known natural wonder: Grand Canyon National Park—combines a desert- and mountain-dotted landscape with increasingly cosmopolitan cities to form one of the United States' best places for exploring the outdoors mere minutes from bustling downtowns. In Phoenix, Arizona's modern capital, enjoy baseball's sping training in March; hot air balloon rides over the city; tours of the city's burgeoning craft cocktail and farm-to-table dining scene; and helicopter flights. Meanwhile, nearby Scottsdale entices with its 200 golf courses and major tournaments. To the north, Sedona's red rocks are best enjoyed on Jeep tours of the open desert, while the Montezuma Castle National Monument offers an impressive display of Pre-Columbian cliff dwellings. To the south, Tucson serves as a melting pot of European, Mexican, and Native American cultures, all of which inform its architecture and gastronomy. If you really want to travel back into Arizonan history, take a custom tour of the original Apache Trail. And, of course, it's impossible to overlook the importance of the Grand Canyon National Park, home to some of the most awe-inspiring views in the world which can be marveled over on a helicopter tour from most Arizona cities.


text:
By: Dr. Philip Schalow
I like meeting people. Sometimes, when it is discovered I am a licensed chiropractor, the conversation becomes, like in a chess game, the "end game." "I have never had to go to a chiropractor," I am told by my new-found conversationalist. And then, the meeting falters and quits, like an old Ford that has an obstruction in its fuel filter. What is meant when someone says, "I never had to go to a chiropractor?"
Chiropractic is commonly thought of as a health-care specialty that has to do with back pain, because chiropractors work in some way on the backbone, or spine. What is overlooked is the fact that the system of interest for the chiropractor is actually the nerve system, which is supposed to be protected by the bony skull and spinal structures. Unfortunately, trauma to these bony structures can move them out of proper position and create abnormal pressures on the nerves they surround. This will cause functional problems like headaches, incontinence, digestive upset, infertility and even high blood pressure. The famous Windsor autopsies, done in 1920, showed that pathological changes in body organs was related to spinal segments that pressed on the nerves feeding those organs. Nearly 100 years later, medical research supports the use of a specialized chiropractic adjustment in normalizing high blood pressure for certain types of patients.
Dr. George Bakris, head of the Hypertension Center at Rush University, found to his surprise that hypertensive patients who had no pain (which all by itself can cause high blood pressure) lowered their blood pressure without drugs only by having this chiropractic procedure done to them. The NUCCA procedure (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association) was performed on 25 out of 50 subjects to correct a neurologically and radiographically measurable misalignment (called a subluxation) of the head and neck. All 25 subjects had normal blood pressure at the end of the eight-week study period. So, if you assume that chiropractic is for back pain, then none of these patients was a candidate for chiropractic. But, if you correctly perceive that chiropractic is for interference on the nerves that run everything in your body, then signs of neurological disturbance can include anything that is out of the ordinary, such as high blood pressure, vision or hearing problems, or non-sensory issues like tremors and bowel problems. And best of all, a person can be helped if the subluxation is present and correctable.
Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, the adjusting doctor in the blood pressure study, stated in an interview with WebMD, "This procedure helps many more problems than just high blood pressure."
So, next time you are tempted to say you are lucky to have never needed a chiropractor, just look to see if you have ever had surgery for some organ breakdown, or are taking any kind of medication. You might find that those seemingly age-related problems are signs your nerve system is not working up to its full potential.
About the Author
Dr. Philip Schalow is the owner of 1st Step Chiropractic, S.C.
Driven by disability, Dr. Schalow began asking questions about where health comes from in 1979, while suffering from the pain of tendonitis in the left hand. Also known as "overuse injury", it prevented completion of his violin performance degree. At this point, the Alexander Technique became a practical procedure to work out the problem of tension. After regaining function, Dr. Schalow completed music studies and became devoted to music performance and teaching the Alexander Technique.
By 1994, through working with children and adults in music teaching settings, it became clear that there could also be structural impediments to optimum function. Then "the light bulb went on" and the whole picture began to emerge of how structure and function work hand in hand to either build or impede coordination
Rockford's center for the NUCCA procedure. Call his office at (815) 398-4500, or visit myrockfordchiropractor.com.


text:
DVD -- Orders -- Contact -- About Us -- Link |
GEORGIA SEA ISLAND SINGERS (1964) Shot in 35mm film with multiple
cameras on a soundstage when the Sea Island Singers were visiting Los
Angeles, this program presents a small part of their repertoire of sacred
music, including the songs- Moses, Yonder Comes Day, Buzzard Lope (Throw Me Anywhere Lord), Adam in the Garden (Picking up Leaves), and Down in the Mire (Bright Star
Shinning in Glory). BUCKDANCER (1965) Featuring Panaloa County fife player Ed Young with Bessie Jones. Ed Young does the Buckdance, demonstrates making a fife, and plays a tune on the fife. PIZZA PIZZA DADDY-O (1967) looks at continuity and change in girl's playground games at a Los Angeles school. SAY OLD MAN CAN YOU PLAY THE FIDDLE (1970) Virtuoso fiddler Earl Collins, born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, moved to Southern California in the Depression. He plays Say Old Man Can You Play the Fiddle, Dry and Dusty, Sally Goodin, Bull at the Wagon, Black Mountain Rag, and Billy in the Low Ground. Additional tunes not included in the edited film are on the DVD. |
The Films of
Bess Lomax Hawes
These films were unique in their time and could not be made now. They developed as opportunities arose, using borrowed equipment, volunteer crews, small budgets, and a great deal of learning and experimentation in the editing room. The films concentrate on performance and by implication how the performers' aesthetics both inform and reflect societal values. The films strive to make a pleasing and engaging record of small moments from the vastness of American expressive traditional arts; neither exhaustive nor statistically representative, but survivals of a time now past. The films were made in the Anthropology Department of San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University at Northridge). Edmund Carpenter founded the department with the intention of moving anthropology beyond the book. He felt that the realities and insights of anthropology were often better represented in the arts than in scholarly texts and between 1957 and 1967 he led a flourishing and experimental department. In addition to cultural anthropologists, physical anthropologists and linguists, his faculty included folklorist Bess Lomax Hawes along with artists, musicians, animators and filmmakers. It was in this context that Bess Hawes made these works. After leaving CSU-Northridge in 1976, she became the first director of the Folk and Traditional Arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts. Though she did not make other films, she has been an ardent supporter of filmmakers who present traditional artists with dignity and enthusiasm. There were no outlets for these films. They were too specialized
for theatrical or television release and not specifically geared to the
educational market. They mostly languished, known only to a few aficionados.
This release on DVD brings the four films together in a single package
with supplementary notes written at the time. |


text:
We finally painted our eggs! Instead of messing with natural dye again, or picking up the boxed kind, I opted to find something around the house to reuse instead. I can never seem to use my nail polish fast enough, and it always ends up goopy. So using some of my bright colors from last year worked perfect! I started by blowing out the eggs, and of course making some omelets.
Use whatever technique works best, I went with the ol' pin and aspirator method. A straw can also be very helpful if you don't have the aspirator.
Then, once the eggs were washed and dry, a little white spackling paste makes the holes vanish. I also created some little egg stands by cutting up all the sections in the egg carton, flipping them upside down, and adding pins to carefully cradle and hold the eggs in place.
Then I put some q-tips into the polish jars, and let Syd go to town painting. She opted for a drippy paint look.
I went for my go-to black, white and gold palette, using sharpies & metallic nail polish.
We cut strips of paper bags to create little nests for our pretty eggs. Here are Syd's colorful creations:


text:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2008
Quick Links
The Judicial Branch's first-ever strategic plan, the results of months of work by the Public Service and Trust Commission, is available online at https://www.jud.ct.gov/Committees/pst/. In addition to the plan, the website contains the following materials that the Commission members relied upon:
Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers appointed the commission last summer. Chaired by Appellate Court Judge Alexandra D. DiPentima, commission members recently finished this plan and submitted it to the Chief Justice for her approval. She has subsequently approved the plan, and the state's Superior Court judges received a copy of the blueprint at their annual meeting on June 30, 2008.
"This plan exceeded my expectations, and I am extremely grateful to Judge DiPentima and members of the commission for all of their hard work," Chief Justice Rogers said. "This is our blueprint as the Judicial Branch focuses on enhancing the services it provides to the many people who use our courthouses every day."
Judge Barbara M. Quinn, Chief Court Administrator, has been charged with implementing the plan. She will be forming new committees when necessary and is already developing a plan to achieve the following strategies:
Commission members will be updated on the progress of the implementation at the next meeting, at the end of this year.
"The strategic plan will guide the Judicial Branch into the 21st century, and I am certain that the people we serve will begin to see many of the suggested improvements in the upcoming months," Judge Quinn said. "I also wish to thank my colleagues on the Public Service and Trust Commission for their dedication to this initiative."
Attorneys | Case Look-up | Courts | Directories | Educational Resources | E-Services | Español | FAQ's | Juror Information | Media | Opinions | Opportunities | Self-Help | Home
Common Legal Words | Contact Us | Site Map | Website Polices and Disclaimers
Copyright © 2016, State of Connecticut Judicial Branch


text:
VSU's Bowland, Gheesling Featured in Radium Springs Art Exhibit
September 10, 2012
Jessica Pope
Communications and Media Relations Coordinator
VSU's Bowland, Gheesling Featured in Radium Springs Art Exhibit
VALDOSTA -- Valdosta State University's Julie Bowland and
Dominick Gheesling are two of the artists featured in the Albany
Area Arts Council's Skywater 2012, a visual exploration of Radium
Springs. She has six pieces in the exhibit; he has 10.
Other selected artists are Charles Williams and Scott Marini,
associate professors of art at Albany State University, and Todd
Bertolaet, professor of art at Florida A&M University.
How the five artists arrived at Skywater 2012 -- which runs through
Sept. 28 and features photographs, sculptures, paintings, pastel
drawings, and more -- is a lesson in connectivity.
"The participating artists were selected or became loosely
confederated through a very organic process," said Gheesling,
assistant professor of art at VSU. "I think I am about as close as
we get to a nucleus."
While pursuing a Bachelor of Science in studio art at Florida State
University, and cooperatively at Florida A&M University,
Gheesling met Bertolaet, who became his friend and mentor.
"I enrolled in the majority of my photography courses through his
department at Florida A&M University," said Gheesling, who
graduated magna cum laude in 2002 from FSU and went on to complete
a Master of Fine Arts in studio art at FSU in 2006. "We continue to
explore and document the region together."
Gheesling and Bowland, professor of art at VSU, have known of each
other since she taught at Tallahassee Community College, where he
mastered his first photography classes, graduating with an
Associate of Arts in 1999.
"She is certainly partly responsible for my position at VSU, and
she is my friend and colleague, and the two of us have been working
in the field together creating art in our own media for the past
two years," he said.
Bowland and Bertolaet know each other from Tallahassee and have
long admired each other's work, he added.
Williams and Gheesling were roommates at FSU and have been friends
ever since.
"After receiving permission and access to Radium Springs,"
Gheesling said, "I invited Todd (Bertolaet), Julie (Bowland), and
(Charles) Chazz (Williams) to come explore with me, which is a
fairly common experience amongst us."
Williams later introduced the group to his colleague, Marini.
"Scott (Marini) joined in with an interest in making sculptural
pieces, and the idea of an exhibition was born and proposed to the
Albany Area Arts Council by Chazz and Scott," Gheesling said.
Dominick Gheesling on Photographing Radium Springs
Gheesling was led to Radium Springs when, in the spring of 2011, he
began working on a project photographing under water in the
freshwater systems of North Florida. Learning of the Albany-based
historic site and botanical garden, he sought and was granted
unrestricted access to Radium Springs.
"Immediately, I had grand visions of lush, color photographs
printed at a grand scale depicting the environment inside the
spring and the run to the Flint River," he said. "My expectations
and reality parted ways."
On Jan. 8, 2012, Gheesling made his first dive into Radium Springs
and the run to the Flint River, known as Skywater Creek.
"The spring was no longer flowing, and what water was in the vent
was a mixture from the last time the Flint filled the spring and
some spring water," he said. "These are far from ideal conditions
for making underwater photographs. There was life in the basin,
Gar, a few Bream and Speckled Perch that were trapped, no longer
able to return to the river."
Gheesling returned again in March, enjoying the rare opportunity of
swimming with a mother Bowfin and her young. By June, the water had
simply disappeared.
"So, no lush, color photographs printed at a grand scale," he
added. "What I did find and attempted to portray through my
terrestrial photographs was a beautiful environment that is the
result of and evokes a tremendous passage of time through both the
natural elements and the man-made structures that have been added.
Many generations, human and other, have left their imprint on this
space, and it can be felt."
Julie Bowland on Painting Radium Springs
As a plein air painter, Bowland noted that she was excited when
Gheesling invited her to paint at Radium Springs. She titled her
first effort of making art on the site "Radium Springs Run."
"Sitting by the spring run, Skywater Creek, amongst giant cypress
trees in the coolness of a December afternoon, I was engulfed into
the beauty around me," she said. "I painted the color palette cool
greens, blues, and violets for the creek and far shore and electric
red-orange-pink for the foreground forms of the cypresses, the
brightness hinting at radioactivity. The mark-making is free and
spontaneous, the way I like to paint or draw in the wild. The
pastel is a depiction of the peace and energy that I felt at the
Bowland returned to the same location, again painting at the feet
of the big cypress trees, this time with oil paints. The next time,
she canoed down the spring run. By her fourth visit, the water was
beginning to disappear.
"… nothing could have prepared me for the disturbing sight that
greeted us when we slipped our canoes on shore…," she said. "A
barren field of bone-like lime rock boulders and river detritus
tumbled about the twin gaping holes of the bridge arches. There was
no water coming out of the spring and no water flowing back into
the creek from the river. The surrounding trees seemed to clamor
and shake. What a dark, foreboding, and ominous site it was."
Just like her fellow artists, she asked, "What the heck happened to
the water?"
Radium Springs
Considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia, Radium
Springs, known as Skywater by the Native Americans who once called
the area home, was historically considered the largest natural
spring in the state. In its heyday, the waters flowed at about
70,000 gallons per minute from the aquifer and underwater cave
system into the Flint River and were a consistent 68 degrees. The
discovery of radium traces in the water in the 1920s led to the
development of the area that included a casino, a hotel,
bathhouses, cottages, riding and walking trails, and a golf
Radium Springs closed in 1939 due to the Great Depression but was
later reopened and closed and reopened several times, having been
acquired by a group of local investors in the 1940s.
Radium Springs remained a popular swimming destination for Albany
area residents until the flood of 1994, which damaged the casino
and other historic structures. The casino was demolished in 2003
following additional flooding in 1998. State and local governments
acquired the property and the remains of the spring area, and
Radium Springs Gardens opened in 2010.
Bowland, Gheesling, and others hope for the return of Skywater and
the opportunity to document that chapter of Radium Springs' story
as well.
Exhibit Information
Skywater 2012 will run through Sept. 28 at the Albany Area Arts
Council gallery, located at 215 N. Jackson St. in Albany. After
that, the exhibit will move to Albany State University's
The Albany Area Arts Council is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday
through Friday and can be reached by calling (229) 439-278.
Admission is free of charge.
Contact Julie Bowland at (229) 333-5833 or email@example.com or J.
Dominick Gheesling at (229) 259-2074 or email@example.com for
more information.
On the Web:
to view more photos.
- Office of Communications Powell Hall West, Suite 1120
Mailing Address
1500 N. Patterson St.
Valdosta, GA 31698 - General VSU Information
- Phone: 229.333.5800
- Office of Communications
- Phone: 229.333.2163
- Phone: 229.333.5983


text:
Wet slums are slum communities that live in conjunction with the water and many occur around the world. The connection to the water also puts them at risk for climate change and rising sea levels. To aid these communities, Waterstudio.nl has been researching how they can put their know-how of floating architecture to good use. They've come up with a series of flexible, adaptable City Applications or City Apps that can aid these communities now and in the event of disaster. With little space available inside the slum, the nearby water provides open space in which to add critical infrastructure to the community.
The City Apps consist of four different types of floating infrastructure designs that can provide food, water, shelter and energy. A floating field can be used as a large community garden to grow food for consumption in the slum or produce food that can be sold in the city. Floating sewage stations can provide potable water for drinking and help process waste to improve hygiene. Floating buildings can be used for additional housing or used as schools, clinics or community centers. Finally floating photovoltaic systems generate energy for the community.
In conjunction with the design of the City Apps, Waterstudio.nl has been researching about 20 Wet Slums around the world and determining their characteristics. This fingerprinting of the slums will help leaders understand the needs of each community and more aptly be able to provide aid and support especially in the event of a disaster. Waterstudio.nl hopes to partner with more organizations to spread their research and help these communities. Their work was recently awarded the "Architecture & Sea Level Rise" Award 2012 from the Jacques Rougerie Foundation.
Images © Waterstudio.nl


text:
Come and celebrate with Fecal Face tonight at 111 Minna for the SF Weekly's Web Award as we won Best Arts Website.
Tonight, Friday 5-9pm. For $10 you get entertainment, music, complimentary drinks, and more... tickets
Best Arts Blog
Fecal Face is San Francisco's connection to the actual (read: professional) art world -- it takes artists seriously, but never overseriously. With lots of sharp-looking, useful features including long-form interviews, shorty update blog posts, and its reliably high-quality calendar, FF is our choice for Best Arts Blog. -- SF Weekly Assistant Calendar Editor Hiya Swanhuyser


text:
ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: January 18, 2012
How drugs get those tongue-twisting generic names
"Where Drug Names Come From"
Chemical & Engineering News
Oseltamivir. Esomeprazole. Trastuzumab. Where do drugs get those odd-sounding generic names? The answers are in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, which explains the logic behind the tongue-twisters.
C&EN Associate Editor Carmen Drahl explains that until 1961 there was no standard for assigning drugs generic names, which are different from brand names like Tamiflu (oseltamivir), Nexium (esomeprazole) and Herceptin (trastuzumab). That's when three medical organizations created the U.S. Adopted Names (USAN) Council to assign simplified alternatives to the unwieldy proper names the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry gives to molecules. For instance, under USAN's guidance, "cis-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide" becomes "zucapsaicin." The council recommends generic names to an international agency of the World Health Organization. The tongue-twisting words the USAN Council creates are products of "stems" that describe a drug's characteristics, which Drahl likens to the Latin and Greek roots of many English words.
Drahl writes that these stems describe everything from a drugs' function to its shape. For instance, the "-prazole" ending of Nexium's generic name, esomeprazole, reveals that it is a type of antiulcer medication. Similar drugs will have the same stems in their names, allowing those familiar with the stems to crack the code. The USAN Council is careful to avoid words that are difficult to pronounce in foreign languages or that may have other meanings abroad. Sometimes, Drahl notes, a generic name will also include hints about its developer that a drug company has suggested to the council, as in carfilzomib, which recognizes molecular biologist Philip Whitcome and his wife Carla.
Science Inquiries: Michael Woods, Editor, 202-872-6293
General Inquiries: Michael Bernstein, 202-872-6042


text:
Clean Pro Woodstock
The best gutter cleaning service and maintenance Woodstock has depended on for years!
You don't have to worry about cleaning your clogged gutters and downspouts any longer! Woodstock Gutter Cleaning is the preferred choice for professional gutter cleaning. Woodstock homeowners consistently turn to the property maintenance and cleaning experts at Woodstock Gutter Cleaning to provide the highest quality gutter and downspout cleaning services. Our experts thoroughly inspect your gutters and downspouts to determine the best way to clean them. Our Woodstock Gutter Cleaning experts will take care of any clogged gutters. We are your best choice for top-quality gutter cleaning services in Woodstock, Georgia and the surrounding area.
Woodstock is a city in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. The population was 33,039 as of 2019 according to the US Census Bureau. Originally a stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Woodstock is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. The city was the tenth fastest-growing suburb in the United States in 2007. == History == The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Woodstock as a town in 1897.
Adair Park at Downtown Woodstock, Aldyn by Pulte Homes, Allatoona Heights, Argonne Forest, Beazer Homes Addison Point, Benteen, Blandtown, Brookhaven, Buckhead Forest, Buckland Oaks, Cambridge Grove, Carver Hills, Castlewood, Davidson Homes at The Village at Towne Lake, Decatur Heights


text:
"I get my Brooks shoes at K-Mart in Cincinnati" |
Pic Pirated w/o Permission from VeggieFueledRunner.com (Thanks Google Images) |
Okay, now that we are all experts on Heel-Toe offset, let us move on to how I made a rookie mistake and am now paying the price.
I usually run in 3 different shoes:
1) Brooks Pure Connect 2's (4mm drop) - Short Races, Tempo Runs, and Track:
2) Brooks Pure Flows 2's (4mm drop) - Medium Long Runs to Long Runs and any race 13.1 or longer:
3)Brooks Launch (9.5mm drop) - Daily Trainer and Recovery Runs:
All three of these shoes are perfect for what I use them for and I love alternating between the 4mm Drop of the Pure Project Shoes and the 9.5mm Drop of the Launch. I feel it gives me a different strike angle and since I usually run a lot of miles I think this helps prevent over-use injuries. I know of zero studies to support this theory but I am going on 6-years of running using this method and have never had a serious running injury (yes, I just knocked on wood, we are good).
Now a few months ago I picked up the Brooks ST Racer 5's (12mm drop). I decided to try these out because the Launch were supposedly being discontinued (Brooks has since announced they are not discontinuing the Launch - whew!) and, well, they looked cool:
And for some reason I never looked to see what was the Heel-to-toe drop?
I had these shoes sitting in my closet and last week I decided to give them a try. I wore them around the house and they were very light (8.6oz) and were a little stiffer then the Launch but I liked the way they felt. Then the next morning rolled around and I had a 14mi run with 9mi at Lactate Threshold on the schedule and I walked out the door wearing my new, cool looking ST Racer 5's.
Bad Idea #1: Wearing a style I have never worn before for a 14mi run w/9mi @LT pace.
Bad Idea #2: Not noticing that these shoes have a 12mm Heel-to-Toe drop.
Bad Idea #3: Not stopping the run after my calf's began to feel a tingling sensation.
Why happened?
If you have ever transitioned into a minimalist-type of shoe, whether it be the Brooks Pure Series, Newtons, Vibrams, etc ... you were surely warned that the transition needs to be done slowly. Start with short runs and gradually increase them over a long period of time. This is not a theory, it is an outright fact. It actually took me about a year until I was able to do the marathon distance in the Brooks Flows.
AND ... Apparently this rule also applies for transitioning in the other direction too? On Sunday night I pulled up the Brooks website and looked up the drop (12mm) of the Racer 5's and realized immediately the error of my ways. I think people just never go from low drop to high drop so I learned this lesson the hard way.
And I didn't even have the excuse of being drunk! |
So, this was on Sunday morning. My left and right calf were inflamed by Sunday night and walking was difficult. The pain is more in the lower calf, upper achilles area (soleus maybe?) and the left is much worse then the right. I've been forced to skip all my scheduled swims/bikes/runs over the last two days due to the strain but was able to go to the track early this morning and do some slow 800m repeats.
I am hopefully to be back at full steam by the weekend and actually relived that this bone-headed mistake just caused a little strain and not a major injury. I am still going to run in the ST Racer 5's as they are really fast and responsive shoe but I will need to keep the runs much shorter as my legs get used to them.
What did we learn today?
Lesson #1 - I am an idiot.
Lesson #2 - Know the Heel-to-toe drop on your shoes.
Lesson #3 - I am an idiot.
Do you know the Heel-to-toe drop in your shoes? Will you now go look it up?
Thanks for Reading,


text: Security | 19. July 2010 | posted by Jan Oliver Löfken Energy question of the week: Does the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico mean the end of deep sea drilling? Since disaster struck the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April 2010, up to nine million litres of crude oil have been gushing into the sea every day. It remains to be seen whether the recently installed 40-ton cap can really stop the majority of the oil flowing from the wellhead, 1500 metres under the sea. The spill will only be stopped definitively when the relief wells are completed in mid-August. But is this catastrophe the beginning of the end for deep sea drilling? Even if BP itself may well be in difficulty because of the disaster, the global oil industry will hardly give up exploring deep-sea oil reserves. Even US President Barack Obama failed to enforce a temporary stop to drilling at a New Orleans court. Thirty-two oil companies contested the stop order, and although the White House may well appeal against the decision, the outcome of such an appeal is far from certain. A satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on 14 July 2010. Source: NASA. Top image: Controlled burns of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Source: John Kepsimelis, U.S. Coast Guard. An end to drilling in the North Sea? Deep sea drilling is going on at around 350 sites in European waters. Following the disaster in the Gulf, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has decided not to grant any new drilling licenses – but only for the time being, until the causes of the Deepwater Horizon spill have been determined. European oil companies are pushing to explore and exploit new oil fields, since reserves, especially in the North Sea and North Atlantic, are dwindling. There is certainly a good chance that safety measures will be improved on deep-sea platforms worldwide. But it is senseless to propose that oil companies from the industrialised West should shut down their operations, according to analyst Volker Steinbach from the Federal Office for Geo-sciences and Resources (Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe; BGR) in Hanover. "In such a case I can only imagine that China would immediately snap up the licenses," he says. And it seems pretty doubtful that China would implement similarly stringent safety standards. Brazil's oil reserves are even deeper than the Gulf of Mexico's The emerging economy of Brazil is similarly unlikely to abandon its recently discovered reserves, off the coast northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Reserves in the Pré Sal area are estimated to be around 55 billion barrels (each barrel is 159 litres). These fields will be opened up in the near future, and could make Brazil the fourth largest oil producing country in the world. But such business opportunities are always accompanied by risk. In order to exploit these fields, Brazil's Petrobras will have to drill at an ocean depth of 2000 metres and sink its wells seven kilometres deep. An even bigger technical challenge that that of the Gulf of Mexico. The DLR Energy question of the week in 'The future of energy' Year of Science The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has given the Year of Science 2010 the motto 'The future of energy'. For this reason the science journalist Jan Oliver Löfken will this year answer a question on the subject of energy in his blog each week. Do you have a question about how our energy supply might look in the future? Or do you want to know, for example, how a wave power plant works and how it can efficiently generate electricity? Then send us your question by email. Science journalist Jan Oliver Löfken will investigate the answers and publish them each week in this blog.


text:
Facebook tracks you online even after you log out
Update: Facebook denies cookie tracking allegations. The original article is below.
Facebook has had privacy issues for a long time, and while the company has been working to improve its image, today's episode will likely set it back once again. Thanks to a modified cookie, Facebook allegedly knows what you're doing online even when you're not logged in.
At least that's what self-proclaimed hacker Nik Cubrilovic claims. After running a series of tests analyzing the HTTP headers on requests sent by browsers to facebook.com, he discovered that Facebook alters its tracking cookies the moment you log out, instead of deleting them. Since your uniquely identifying account information is still present in these cookies, Facebook can continue to track you, Cubrilovic argues.
This means that if you log out of Facebook, you're not really doing much. If you then head to a website that contains a Facebook plugin, your browser will continue to send personally identifiable information back to Palo Alto. Here's Cubrilovic's explanation:
With my browser logged out of Facebook, whenever I visit any page with a Facebook like button, or share button, or any other widget, the information, including my account ID, is still being sent to Facebook. The only solution to Facebook not knowing who you are is to delete all Facebook cookies. You can test this for yourself using any browser with developer tools installed. It is all hidden in plain sight.
So how do you get rid of these Facebook cookies in a way that will still let you use the service? Well, you can delete them every time after you log out of the website. Alternatively, Hacker News user buro9 says you can use the following AdBlock Plus rules:
facebook.com^$domain=~facebook.com ~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net facebook.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net fbcdn.com^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net fbcdn.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
This will supposedly limit your usage of the social network to just facebook.com. If you need to use it on another website, you can temporarily whitelist it with the AdBlock switch.
If what Cubrilovic found today ends up being true, this could be a serious problem for Facebook. I have contacted Facebook for more information on this issue.
This is actually similar to the scrutiny Facebook has faced in Germany, especially recently. See the links below for full coverage.
See also:
- German minister tells colleagues to avoid Facebook
- Facebook agrees to sign voluntary privacy code in Germany
- German website creates two-click Like button, Facebook not amused
- Germany: Facebook Like button violates privacy laws
- Germany: Facebook facial recognition feature violates privacy laws
- Facebook offers new privacy policy for regular people


text:
The oustanding image is part of Apartment Room Design Ideas has dimension x pixel. You can save as and obtain the Apartment Room Design Ideas wallpaper by click the save as button below to get multiple high-resversions. Here is main information about HD Wallpaper. We have the resource more image about Live images. Check it out for yourself! You can acquire APARTMENT PLANS and see the Apartment Room Design Ideasin here.
If you happen to be the kind of parents who love their child then you must consider having this kind of Apartment Room Design Ideas, from APARTMENT PLANS in order to make your nephew happy and also in order to help your nephew learn about APARTMENT PLANS, about other things. inspect kind of stuff are easy. You can find this Apartment Room Design Ideas on the Wallpaper directory.


text:
Short and sweet
The gambolling lambs are making their way to the works, so give yourself the first taste of spring. Tiny cutlets of quickly seared lamb, paired with spring mint (a classic vinegary mint sauce or groove up a pesto with mint instead of basil) served on a creamy mash or polenta.
Here's looking at you lamb
Channel the tastes of Casablanca with Middle Eastern-inspired lamb cutlets, brushed with lemon juice before quickly pan-frying. Serve with fresh spring vegetables (tomatoes and mint, plus chopped dried apricots and bright green pistachios) stirred through fluffy couscous. Finish with olive oil, olives and more mint.
Citrus tang
A lamb rack brushed with thyme and roasted for around 20 minutes at 190C is as simple as it gets. In the last few minutes of cooking, brush with a glaze of marmalade, crushed ginger and a splash of brandy. Keep the spring palette going with a simple grated beetroot salad, dressed with vinaigrette or steamed beans and broad beans.


text:
DeConto et al: Thawing permafrost drove the PETM extreme heat event
Posted on 11 April 2012 by Andy Skuce
Sudden spikes in global temperatures that occurred 50-55 million years ago were caused by thawing of permafrost in Antarctica and northern high latitudes, according to recent research. The trigger for this sudden destabilization was a variation in orbital configurations that resulted in warmer polar summers. This model also provides an analogue for the releases of carbon from modern permafrost caused by current man-made global warming. Modern permafrost volumes are smaller than the estimates for those of 55 million years ago, but will nevertheless amplify the climatic effect of fossil fuel consumption and will provide continuing warming feedbacks for centuries after human emissions cease.
The Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal events
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is an extreme global warming event or hyperthermal that occurred 55.5 million years ago when a sudden "burp" of a huge quantity of carbon was emitted into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise by five degrees Celsius and the oceans to become more acid. Because of the rapidity of the carbon burp, the event has often been considered an analogue of what might happen as humans release a comparable slug of CO2 into the atmosphere. The PETM was discovered in 1991 by Kennett and Stott and since then over 400 scientific papers have been written on the subject. There is a good review of the PETM by McInerney and Wing (2011). See also Rob Painting's post CO2 Currently Rising Faster Than The PETM Extinction Event and the comments in the discussion that follows it.
There are uncertainties about where the carbon in the PETM came from and what triggered its sudden release. One of the leading hypotheses (e.g. Dickens, 2003) has been that the carbon was released from methane hydrates, ice-like accumulations of methane and water that were present in sediments below the deep ocean floor. According to this hypothesis, the hydrates became destabilized as sea water temperatures gradually rose. The release of the hydrates into the atmosphere increased the greenhouse effect, which led to more hydrate destabilization. See also Lunt et al (2011).
One problem with the hydrate release model is that carbon from hydrates is particularly low in the heavier C13 isotope (the hydrate δ13C value—the amount in thousandths that methane hydrate is depleted in the heavier isotope than marine carbon—is about -60‰). To achieve the level of carbon isotopes observed at the height of the PETM (the so-called Carbon Isotope Excursion or CIE) requires the release of ~2000 Pg (2000 billion metric tons) of carbon from hydrates, which may be insufficient to account for the extra greenhouse warming observed at the PETM. It is worth noting that the size of the PETM CIE has not been determined exactly, with estimates varying by more than a factor or two; with marine carbonates yielding lower estimates and estimates from terrestrial carbon samples pointing to a bigger CIE.
The PETM was the biggest, and is certainly the best-known event of its kind, but it was followed by smaller, lesser-known but similar events over the subsequent 3 million years These are known as ETM2 and ETM3; PETM is also sometimes called ETM1.
Other carbon release models for the PETM include invoking a comet impact, or massive peat and coal fires (δ13C value is about -22‰), or thermogenic methane releases in the North Atlantic (from volcanic intrusions into mudstones rich in organic matter) with a δ13C value of about -30‰. (The more negative the δ13C value, the less emitted carbon is needed to lighten the atmosphere to the range of CIE's observed at PETM times.) The problem with all these hypotheses is that they rely upon one-off mechanisms that, even if they work for the PETM, it is improbable that they could be invoked again to account for the ETM2 and ETM3 events.
A paper just published in Nature (subscription only) by Robert DeConto (DC12) and seven co-authors proposes a model that, the authors claim, can account for the CIE, the extreme warming, the repetitive nature of these hyperthermal events, and the fact that the events become progressively less prominent with time.
The permafrost feedback model
There is a rock outcrop near the town of Gubbio, in central Italy, that has played a key role in three major geological controversies: continental drift/paleomagnetism; the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary layer, related to the comet impact and extinction of the dinosaurs; and, more recently, paleoclimate studies of the Paleocene and Eocene. If there was a prize for the "most informative rock outcrop", the Gubbio section would have been a multiple winner.
Left, Luis and Walter Alvarez at the K-T boundary in Gubbio, in 1981 (Wikipedia); right, a plaque marking a zone on the Gubbio paleomagnetic section (source).
The Gubbio rocks are a continuous sequence, some tens of metres thick, of pelagic limestones and marls formed by the shells of foraminifera that were deposited on the deep ocean floor. Galeotti et al (2010) studied this sequence in great detail using microfossils, carbon isotopes, calcium carbonate concentrations and magnetostratigraphy. They were able to correlate the hyperthermal events (PETM, ETM2 and ETM3) with orbital cycles.
DeConto et al (DC12) used these results to develop a model for the hyperthermal events that involves orbital configurations acting as a trigger. A combination of high obliquity (the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation responsible for the seasons) and high eccentricity (non-circular Earth orbits around the Sun), results in periods of greater insolation (more sunlight) at high latitudes. This provoked the thawing of Antarctic and Arctic permafrost, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, causing increased greenhouse warming, which, in turn, triggered more permafrost carbon release until the permafrost carbon was used up. Once the peak of the hyperthermal was reached, rock weathering drew down the CO2, cooling the Earth until permafrost started to form again near the poles, sequestering carbon in frozen soils.
This orbitally triggered cycle is similar in some ways to the better-known and more recent ice-age cycles. For example, see Dana Nuccitelli's post on the recent Shakun et al paper. However, the ice-age cycles were partly a result of albedo feedbacks from advancing or retreating icesheets—there were no continental icesheets in the Paleogene (the term for the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene combined)—and the ice-age CO2 feedbacks primarily involved inorganic carbon dissolved in the oceans. The timing of the cycles is also very different, all of the eight ice-age cycles occurred over a span of 800,000 years, whereas the gaps between the three Paleogene hyperthermals were 1.8 and 1.2 million years long.
Simulations of biomes (left) and permafrost (right) for three different forcing models: 900ppm CO2 equivalent, mean orbit (top); 900 ppm of CO2 eq., warm southern summer orbit (middle); 2680ppm CO2 eq., mean orbit (bottom). A comparison with a model run on the modern Earth can be seen here. From DC12 and DC12 supplementary material. [Note: 900 ppm of CO2 eq. includes 760ppm CO2, plus CH4 and N2O; 2680ppm CO2 eq, comprises 2000ppm CO2 plus the other GHGs.]
DeConto and his co-workers tested a variety of atmospheric and orbital parameters using a Global Climate Model with coupled biosphere and soil components. Three of the model runs (#2, #5 and #7) are shown above. In model #2, global average temperatures are 6°C warmer than today, yet the area of permafrost is 22.4 million km2, which is roughly equivalent to today's area of 19 million km2. At first sight, it may appear odd that the area of permafrost in the Paleogene hothouse climate was similar to the area in today's icehouse climate. The problem is resolved by considering that the continent of Antarctica was unglaciated 55 million years ago and its land area was bigger than today's due to relative isostatic uplift, providing room for large permafrost areas that compensate for the much smaller permafrost areas, compared to the modern situation, in the Paleogene north.
In model #5, the higher obliquity and eccentricity configurations increase summer insolation at both poles, reducing the permafrost area by 33%.The emissions associated with this thaw produce a positive greenhouse feedback, leading, eventually, to a situation like model #7, where atmospheric greenhouse gasses are at a level of 2680ppm CO2 equivalent, in which global mean temperatures have risen by 6°C above the late Paleocene norm and permafrost has all but disappeared from the planet.
A schematic of the permafrost-hyperthermal mechanism
The red and green peaks on the upper panel show a series of hyperthermal spikes built upon a rising base trend of increasing CO2. The lower schematics illustrate how the permafrost-hyperthermal feedback cycles work. From the supplemental material of DC12.
In the graphic above, the initial release of carbon (between times 1 and 3) takes 10,000 years. Following this release, the very high ensuing global temperatures increase the rate of the chemical reactions involved in the weathering of silicate rocks. These reactions reduce the CO2 in the air over periods of hundreds of thousands of years, gradually cooling the climate. Eventually, it gets cool enough at higher elevations near the poles for permafrost to reform, which further draws down the CO2. Because of the longer-term background trend of increasing CO2 concentrations and a warming climate, less permafrost was re-formed to be available for driving the future, and smaller, hyperthermals ETM2 and ETM3.
The new model of DeConto et al will not, of course, be the final word on the subject of the Paleogene hyperthermals. Climate models are unable yet to fully account for all the features of the Paleogene climate. Current proxy measurements of CO2 concentrations and regional temperatures are highly uncertain and some important factors, such as methane concentrations, cannot yet be measured at all.
As noted earlier, there is also uncertainty over the size of the PETM carbon isotope excursion, also. Figure 3 from the review article of McInerny and Wing (2011) shows that a release of 3434 +/- 951 PgC (billion tonnes) of permafrost carbon, as proposed in DC12, would barely account for only the lowest estimates of the PETM CIE. It is perhaps likely that releases of C13-depleted methane hydrates played at least a supporting role, maybe as a feedback, in these extreme warming events.
Volumes and emission rates, then and now
The required mass of carbon to be added to the atmosphere between stages #5 and #7 is estimated to be 3434 (+/- 951) billion tonnes, with the total pre-PETM permafrost carbon pool being 3728+/- 1033 billion tonnes. This figure is more than double the 1700 billion tonnes estimated to be in place in modern permafrost. Yet, as remarked previously, the areas of permafrost then and now are roughly equivalent. This apparent discrepancy is accounted for in DC12 by the authors assuming that:
a) The depth of permafrost in the Paleocene was thicker than today's, because a much longer preceding cool period, perhaps a million years before the PETM, allowed ample time for the large volumes of carbon to be deposited; whereas modern permafrost carbon deposition (in most areas) occurred only during brief (~10,000 year) interglacial periods.
b) DC12 argues that the interior of Antarctica was a flat plain, prone to hosting wetlands with associated carbon-rich peat deposition; a situation that would have allowed for the accumulation of much more carbon per unit area than the modern average.
The rate of carbon release in the DC12 model is estimated at up to 1.5 billion tonnes per year, comparable to calculations of the rate of release calculated by modelling modern permafrost under the IPCC A1B scenario (Schaeffer et al, 2011), but spread over thousands of years for the PETM case; whereas the Schaefer model has carbon emissions lasting for just 200 years. Our current global emissions, for comparison, are over 9 billion tonnes of carbon per year, some six times the maximum rate modelled for the PETM or permafrost later this century.
The not-so-permafrosting on the fossil fuel cake
Schuur and Abbott (2011) polled 41 permafrost experts for their estimates on the future release of permafrost carbon. Below, is the range of estimates for cumulative emissions by certain dates:
Date Estimate (billion tonnes C CO2)
2040 30-63
2100 232-380
2300 549-865
The great majority of this release of permafrost carbon will be in the form of CO2, but Schuur and Abbott estimate that 2.7% will be as methane (CH4). Because methane has a much higher global-warming potential, about half of the climate forcing induced by permafrost emissions will come from that gas alone.
Within the next 90 years, therefore, we can expect permafrost carbon emissions of a little less than one-tenthfortieth of the total amount estimated by DC12 for the PETM. After 2100, cumulative emissions are expected to more than double over the following two centuries. Over a longer timeframe of many centuries, we can expect a further contribution of carbon to the atmosphere from the destabilization of gas hydrates. Some researchers argue that hydrate releases may already have started.
The potential for a major permafrost carbon release in this century is quite real and the hypothesis outlined in DC12, for the first time, provides an ancient analogue of a permafrost release causing a major global warming event. Nevertheless, we are not likely to get a PETM-sized carbon release because the amount of carbon in current permafrost stores is relatively small compared to the Paleogene. An ETM2 or ETM3-sized hyperthermal may be more plausible, however.
The estimates of permafrost emissions can be compared with the carbon in proven remaining reserves of oil, gas, coal and the Alberta bitumen sands (amounts are from reserves figures from BP and Alberta's ERCB, as converted to carbon emissions by Swart and Weaver, 2012 (subs. only)). These reserve estimates sum to about 900 billion tonnes of carbon in proven fossil fuel reserves. At current levels of consumption, these stores of carbon will be released into the atmosphere over a period of just a few decades. (BP's proven reserves/production ratio for oil is 46 years; for gas, 59 ; and for coal, 118). As the conventional reserves are consumed, they will be partly replenished by new discoveries and reserves growth. Technological improvements and rising prices will enable the exploitation of the huge resource base of coal and unconventional gas and oil. The 900 billion tonne figure is thus best regarded as a minimum case on a business-as-usual path. Our cumulative emissions from continuing fossil-fuel use over this century are therefore likely to be much bigger even than the worst-case permafrost release three centuries from now.
Positive net carbon-cycle feedbacks from thawing permafrost may start as early as 2020, which will make emissions mitigation efforts more difficult. By 2100, net emission rates from permafrost could reach 1.6 billion tons of carbon per year (Schaeffer et al al, 2011), which exceeds the current annual emissions from the United States. Once started, permafrost emissions would be impossible to reverse and would endure for centuries, making climate change steadily worse even if we had already stopped all emissions from fossil fuels. The only way to prevent permafrost feedbacks is to limit climate change enough not to incite them in the first place. The Eemian interglacial may have been slightly warmer than today and did not provoke a runaway permafrost feedback, so it may not be too late.
In conclusion, disquieting though the threat of future permafrost feedbacks undoubtedly is, we should perhaps worry more about the far greater stores of fossil carbon that we are now quite deliberately exhuming and putting into the atmosphere over a much shorter time period than any projected releases from thawing frozen ground. Indeed, as I argued in a previous article, our business-as-usual emissions are on track to change our atmosphere to the baseline levels in the Eocene and Paleocene. That is plenty to be worried about. By the time we get to the stage of having doubled or tripled pre-industrial levels of greenhouse gasses, any additional carbon releases from thawing long-frozen ground will just be the icing on an over-baked cake.
[Note: the Schurr and Abbott permafrost emission estimates were originally labeled "billion tones C", whereas it should read "billion tones CO2". In a subsequent paragraph the realtive size of expected permafrost emissions in this century was misstated and corrected. Changes made May 26, 2012]
Thanks to Rob Painting, Alex C and Dana Nuccitelli for helpful comments.


text:
Dear Crabby,
I am always torn on when to do my fall clean up. Some neighbors get it done early while others wait until just before the snow falls. When do you think is the right time to have the fall clean up completed?
Sincerely, Mr. Neat N. Clean
Dear Mr. Clean,
I am the the kind of guy that really enjoys fall clean up. Not because I like to work on my yard, actually just the opposite. I like to wait until my neighbors get their yards looking all tidy and empty of leaves and then have a big wind blow all the leaves from my yard over into theirs. I know that sounds pretty evil of me, but I figure it is nature's way of helping to even the playing field for those who seem to have the time and energy to have a perfect yard all year long. I do very little in my yard all summer, but my neighbors have these picture perfect yards all around me. Then, as soon as a couple of leaves fall, they are out there with rakes and these vacuum cleaner machines and they make the whole yard look spotless. I just sit on my couch and watch. This provides hours of entertainment – I get to see my messy yard drive them nuts! A few years ago, my son-in-law bought me this great new toy, a leaf blower. It is perfect. When there isn't any wind to count on, I can just go out there for a few minutes and blow all the leaves into their yards by myself. I don't have to exert much energy at all. That is the best invention ever! However, those skinny paper bags that you are supposed to put yard waste in are probably the worst inventions ever. How in the world are you supposed to fill those things? They are not even wide enough to put things in with two hands, much less a wide rake! Then, when you fill them to the top, you can't close them. Furthermore, if it rains that week and they get wet at all, they burst out the bottom! And for some reason the dogs and raccoons seem to love to rip them open, for no particular reason, when they are out on the curb! I say we fill them full of the doggy waste and drop a load of these little packages off at the guy's house who invented these things! Anyway, as far as when to do your own clean up – anything goes. There is no right or wrong date in my book. But, of course, I still wear socks with my sandals, and I wear white after Labor Day, so you may not want to ask me. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
Sincerely, Dear Crabby
Stuck in a rut> Need some biased advice from a crabby old baby-boomer? Ask Dear Crabby at www.DearCrabby.biz


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The current city ad valorem tax rate is: $1.1398 per $100.00 of assessed valuation.
Show All Answers
General Fund (inc Public Safety Tax): 67.00 centsParks & Recreation Fund: 20.00 centsHealth Fund: 21.95 centsMuseum Fund: 5.00 centsTotal: $1.1395
Buchanan County has set the assessed value of a residential property at 19% of its fair market value. The City's tax levy is taken times this assessed valuation. So, for example: An individual who owns a home with an actual value of $100,000 would pay the following to the City: $100,000 x 19% = $ 19,000 assessed valuation. $19,000 divided by $100 = $ 190.00 x $1.1398 = $216.56 (City Real Estate Property Tax)
8.7%. There are also some additional jurisdictions within the City of St. Joseph assessing sales taxes. For a breakdown, please see
- Individual Funds' CIP projects (these projects include certain smaller Street projects, some Park improvements, Sewer improvements, basically any capital project paid for out of a specific fund's dollars).- CIP Sales Tax Projects (projects paid for out of the one-half cent capital improvements sales tax).
Large Sewer CIP projects are financed by revenue bonds approved by a vote of the citizens as well as through bonds approved through development boards. The annual bond payments are included in the overall rates charged to customers.
Several years ago, improvements to the Parking Garages, Health Department, Parks Department facility, and Landfill facility were financed using PBA (Public Building Authority) issued bonds. Annual payments are authorized from the existing revenue streams of the funds in which the improvement occurred.
By State statute, the City is permitted, by vote of 2/3rds majority, to incur General Obligation (GO) debt in the amount not to exceed 20% of the assessed value of the City.
In order to be sure that monies received are spent as legally required the City sets up different Funds (like separate bank accounts) to keep track of where the money comes from and how it is spent. This is verified every year during an audit by independent, outside auditors.


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office is proud to have the opportunity to provide the services of four Inmate Work Crews; three working throughout the week, one on the weekends.
Supervised by a staff of Custody Officers, crews of qualifying inmates perform various improvement and clean-up projects to the local municipalities and not-for-profit organizations within Cayuga County. It was the intent of the Sheriff's Office to provide this program to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live and to help reduce the cost of operating government.
The program additionally allows for participating inmates to pay something back to the community, showcase their talents and instill in them a feeling of self-worth that will hopefully remain with them upon their release and lead to their becoming productive, law-abiding citizens.
Show All Answers
Inmates in our facility are currently allowed to receive letters, make collect calls, and receive visitation. The facility does not take messages for inmates.
Inmates are not allowed to receive calls. They may only make collect calls after the booking process. All telephone calls may be recorded.
Mail can be sent by addressing the correspondence to the inmate with their number (if known). An example:John Doe #0000007445 County House RoadAuburn, NY 13021
Inmates are allowed to purchase emails from commissary. You cannot initiate an email to an inmate, however you can respond to their emails. All emails may be read.
There are two ways to visit an inmate, scheduling and walk-ins. Scheduling is the preferred method and those who schedule a visit are given preference.
Call 315-253-2911 on Mondays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a visit. Arrive 15 minutes prior to visit.
Arrive at the facility 30 minutes prior to a visitation. If room is available, you will be permitted in.
Bailing someone out can be done in person or online.
Inmates are not permitted to have cash. You may send money to an inmate in the form of a money order made out to them and sent in the mail. There is a money kiosk in our lobby to deposit money into an inmate commissary account, for a small fee.
Medical concerns can be addressed to the medical office at 315-253-3061.
Mental health concerns can be addressed to the mental health office at 315-253-1028.
Medical and mental health staff cannot discuss medical diagnosis or treatment plans. They can only listen to your concerns, they cannot give out information.
You may call 315-253-3002 to speak with a shift supervisor.
You may call 315-253-1562 to speak with a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Coordinator.
Call 315-253-1602 to schedule an appointment between the hours of 6 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.


text:
Send Us Your Reading Bucket List!
Do you have a "bucket list" for reading?
Bucket lists became popular after the major motion picture, "The Bucket List," was released in 2007. They're usually thought of as lists of encounters, trips, or crazy stunts that a person wants to do before the end of her life. According to squidoo.com, "the majority of them are general in nature, a catch-all for whatever takes your fancy." In this case, the library would like to put together a display that represents your "bucket list" of reading.
We'd love to have your lists by June 16 so we can build the display. Send your bucket list to email@example.com or post it here in the Comments!
3 Comments »
Comment by Lori Strickler — June 9, 2011 @ 1:58 PM
What a great idea! My reading Bucket List is basically to make my way through all of the books listed in the "Detecting Women" and "Detecting Men" mystery readers guides. I've made a small dent so far but at over 4,000 titles each, I've got my work cut out for me! And since they were last updated in 1999 and 1998 respectively, I'll need to update the list with new additions to each series that have been published since then. Gotta go crack open another mystery!
Reference Librarian, Law School -
The bible
Comment by jolsen — August 12, 2011 @ 1:43 PM
See the great display at the front entrance of the library. I believe it will be up for the next few weeks.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
Spotify shows offline, Android smarts
I hope Apple don't block this, by Ek
Spotify, the major labels' big bet for stopping P2P wickedness, has demonstrated an offline version of the service for the first time. It's running on a Google Android mobile phone at Google's I/O developer event. And as you can see, it provides fast and slick access to the music, just like the desktop client. The most interesting aspect is not that it's mobile - that's no surprise - it's the "offline mode" that's new. Playlists can be cached, which turns your phone into an MP3 player with Spotify as the default music client.
[For more detail click here for the widescreen, higher resolution version]
Playlists are instantly synced across desktop and mobile clients, and can be manipulated on either.
Spotify is working on several mobile versions - at The Great Escape in Brighton a fortnight ago, founder Daniel Ek confirmed an iPhone/iPod Touch version, but said he hoped Apple wouldn't block the app for competing with Apple's own iTunes store. His hopes were based on the precedent that Apple had not blocked Pandora or Last.fm applications.
But as we can see, Spotify isn't just a streaming service any more. The offline mode takes it right into iTunes territory. ®


text:
audite Musikproduktion
Hülsenweg 7
D-32760 Detmold
Departing from home: in Schelomo, Bloch examines his cultural and religious roots; in his cello concerto, Dvořák illustrates both his old and his new native countries, whilst the forest scene Klid represents a bridge and also an atmospheric reminiscence.more
"This sort of playing has me reaching for the rewind facility just for the pleasure of enjoying it a second or third time." (Gramophone)
Dvořák: Cello Concerto & Klid - Bloch: Schelomo | |
article number: | 97.734 |
EAN barcode: | 4022143977342 |
price group: | BCA |
release date: | 30. June 2017 |
total time: | 68 min. |
Having spent nearly two decades playing solo recitals and chamber music, as well as performing alongside renowned orchestras, Marc Coppey turns to three classics of the cello repertoire. Following the album of cello concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, audite now presents the second disc with the French cellist.
Departing from home: in Schelomo, Bloch examines his cultural and religious roots; in his cello concerto, Dvořák illustrates both his old and his new native countries, whilst the forest scene Klid represents a bridge and also an atmospheric reminiscence.
In all three works, the composers look from Europe to America and vice versa: Bloch's Schelomo was written immediately before his crossing to America; Dvořák composed his B minor Cello Concerto only once he had arrived there. Klid (Silent Woods) sits in between: before departing for America, Dvořák arranged this work, originally for piano duet, for cello and piano, to be played during his farewell tour. In this format, the piece became so popular that he went on to produce an additional version for cello and orchestra.
Antonín Dvořák and Ernest Bloch provide clear performing instructions, but also demand a high degree of free interpretation. Marc Coppey manages to realise both of these aspects, maintaining a convincing balance and communicating intensively with the orchestra. He does not need to demonstrate his virtuosity through overly hasty tempi: instead, he follows the recommendations found in the scores. This greatly benefits the clarity, vividness and eloquence of his interpretations. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Kirill Karabits prove congenial partners.
La rhapsodie hébraïque Schelomo d'Ernest Bloch, basée sur la vie du roiMehr lesen
Après près de 20 ans de récitals et de musiques de chambre pourMehr lesen
I must admit that I sighed a little as I got ready to review this CD. "Here we go, another Dvořák Cello Concerto," I thought. Even so, myMehr lesen
Partnered by expressively sensitive orchestral playing from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Kirill Karabits, coupled with a beautifully clear resonant recording, there is simply everything to recommend in this performance. [...] This is undoubtedly one of the finest versions of this much-recorded work to date.Mehr lesen
The selling point here is the order of the program and the liner notes by Coppey with a further set by Habakuk Traber. These present Schelomo as aMehr lesen
L'unique concerto que Dvorak écrivit pour Hanus Wihan (qui renonça à saMehr lesen
New recordings of Dvořák's B-Minor Cello Concerto continue apace, but it has been quite a while since a new recording of Bloch's "HebraicMehr lesen
Par son esprit incantatoire, sa profondeur méditative, ses couleurs orientales, Schelomo (1916) reste une des pages les plus révélatrices duMehr lesen
Cellists come in three general varieties, I often think: lugubrious, slithery, or chaste. Lugubrious cellists wrestle their instruments with bearMehr lesen
The standard repertoire for cello and orchestra doesn't contain many French works, but the French performing style has a strong profile. I wasMehr lesen
Als reziproke Spiegelbilder versteht der Straßburger Cellist Marc Coppey die beiden zentralen Werke seiner neuen Aufnahme: Blochs "Schelomo" entstandMehr lesen
Coppey offers a full-blooded, passionate reading [...] It's a virtuoso performance with fine coordination between orchestra and soloist. Highly recommended.Mehr lesen
Coppey and Karabits address this movement with a singularly epic relish, grand in scope and deep in feeling, well befitting the extraordinary richness of this concerto masterpiece.Mehr lesen
Nachdem Marc Coppey uns vor einem Jahr mit seinem Farbenrausch in den Cellokonzerten von C.Ph.E. Bach begeistert hat, legt der Cellist jetzt mit derMehr lesen
While not wishing to mislead with excessive praise, Marc Coppey's 2016 account of the Dvořák Concerto more reminded me of Emanuel Feuermann'sMehr lesen
The excellent recording technique this album has been created, is customary practice for audite and it is particularly effective in the form of the present high-resolution download.Mehr lesen
Coppey brings to Schelomo — Ernest Bloch's dark-hued evocation of theMehr lesen
Nur ganz selten habe ich Ernest Blochs 'Schelomo' in einer so stimmungsvollen, hoch inspirierten Fassung gehört wie auf dieser neuen CD mit demMehr lesen
Antonín Dvořák and Ernest Bloch provide clear performing instructions, but also demand a high degree of free interpretation. Marc Coppey manages to realize both of these aspects, maintaining a convincing balance and communicating intensively with the orchestra.Mehr lesen
[Marc Coppey] s'engage dans l'œuvre avec une intensité, une furia, quelque chose de précipité et de quasiment à court de souffle qui dès les premières pages saisit.Mehr lesen


text:
EU–(ENEWSPF)–16 April 2013. Developing new ways of monitoring Earth is always demanding, but ESA's Aeolus mission has faced some particularly difficult technical challenges. However, with the success of intense high-energy tests on its novel laser there is now light at the end of the tunnel for this unique mission.
The Aeolus satellite will carry a single, but complex, instrument that will probe the atmosphere to profile the world's winds. Reliable and timely wind profiles are urgently needed by meteorologists to improve weather forecasts. In the long term, they will also contribute to climate research.
Aeolus carries a pioneering instrument called Aladin that uses laser light scattering and the Doppler effect to gather data on wind.
The laser generates high-energy UV light, which is beamed towards Earth through a telescope. As the light travels down through the atmosphere, it bounces off molecules of gas, particles of dust and droplets of water.
This scatters some of the light in all directions, including back to the satellite where it is recorded by Aladin.
By comparing the shift in frequency of the received light from the transmitted light caused by the Doppler effect, the motion of the molecules in the atmosphere can be measured, revealing wind velocity.
The laser transmitter is being developed by Selex-ES in Italy.
It has been a very long and difficult undertaking – forging new technologies in many areas such as optics, opto-electronics, precision mechanics and thermo-mechanical design.
Recent tests show all this effort has not been in vain.
Throughout three consecutive weeks, the laser transmitter remained perfectly stable at full energy, producing a total of 90 million UV laser shots.
Considering that each shot is 5 MW, peaking at an intensity similar to that of a lightning strike and that this is repeated 50 times a second – the stress on the optical components that shape and guide the laser beam is tremendous.
Alessandro d'Ottavi, the chief laser engineer at Selex-ES, says, "Bearing in mind the hurdles we've faced, this positive outcome is very important.
"The environment in space, the high laser power and the number of laser shots that the UV optics will have to withstand over the life of the mission all mean that the Aladin UV optics had to be pushed beyond the state of the art."
Didier Morancais, project manager for the Aladin instrument at Astrium-SAS, adds, "This project has been on the brink of technology from the start. These positive results, together with added design margins within the laser and the instrument, are encouraging and paves the way towards a qualification of the first UV space laser."
Improvements to the laser resistance of the optical coatings had to be specially developed.
ESA's Aladin instrument manager, Denny Wernham, explains, "Last year's endurance test indicated that during the course of millions of laser shots, very small areas of the UV optics could be damaged.
"This issue was tackled on multiple fronts: new UV coatings were developed, the energy density of the laser in the UV section was reduced while keeping the total output energy constant by improving the efficiency of the crystals that convert infrared to UV light, and it was decided that the new UV optics would be 'screened' to guarantee their performance."
A critical component of the laser, the 'optical amplifier', is now undergoing long-term thermo-optical stability tests in the vacuum chamber at ESA's ESTEC research and technology centre in the Netherlands.
ESA's Aeolus project manager, Anders Elfving, commented, "With the many difficulties of the past, in particular the problems in the UV optics, we were being asked some tough questions, which we are now able to answer.
"We look forward to using the recent successful test as a springboard to the qualification and delivery of the first laser from Selex-ES this year, and by this stick to the schedule of launching this ground-breaking Earth Explorer mission in 2015."
Source: esa.int


text:
Fig Jam with Local Honey and Bay
More of the plenty from our hard-working fig tree. This recipe is poached from my sacred jamming text, Mes Confitures: the Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber. If any of our dear readers have questions about the more technical aspects of making jam, please feel free to send me some questions. I am just a neophyte, but I am getting better, and I have some good resources.
2 1/2 pounds brown turkey figs (I think any variety would be great)
2 1/3 cups of agave nectar (or 3 1/4 cups of sugar)
3 1/2 oz floral honey (use local honey because it will help with your hay fever)
6 bay leaves
Juice of one Meyer lemon
1 1/2 teaspoon pectin (I use Pomona's Universal Pectin)
1 tablespoon sugar
Remove the stems from the figs and cut the fruit up into thin slices. In a glass or ceramic bowl combine the fig slices, honey, lemon juice, and bay leaves. Let the fruit macerate for 30 minutes.
Put the mixture into a preserving pan. We were lucky enough to get a beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven for our wedding; I like to use this for all my jams. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Then turn back into the original bowl, cover with a piece of parchment, and refrigerate overnight.
Next day, you will have a decision to make. My recipe does not call for any added pectin, which is a gelling agent extracted from citrus fruit. This is the stuff that makes jams more or less solid. I think that my decision to use agave nectar (lower glycemic index) compels me to add a bit of pectin as I am cooking the jam. Otherwise, my finished product ends up being too thin. I use Pomona's Universal Pectin, and tend to use less of the mixture than the company recommends. I add about one and a half teaspoons to this recipe, mixing it with one or two tablespoons of sugar before adding. Mixing with the sugar helps keep the pectin from staying chunky in your jam (that's unsightly). If you use sugar instead of agave, try to jam without the pectin.
Now, you can bring the jam to a boil and continue cooking on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring gently. Jam must reach 221 degrees in order to set properly. Use a candy thermometer to check. Remove the bay leaves and return to a boil. Put the jam into sterilized jars immediately and seal.
This jam is delicious accompanying duck or pork. We served it with some duck liver and pork pate and Mary's Gone Crackers (gluten-free), and it was unbelievable.
2 comments:
- AnonymousOctober 12, 2009
We went to Berkeley Bowl (the new one) and bought pate just for this jam....YUMMMMMMMMM! It is sweet and salty with the pate, we are having it for dinner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)


text:
David A. Janes
Mr. Janes was Chairman of Janes Capital Partners (JCP), an investment banking firm specializing in Mergers & Acquisitions in Aerospace & Defense. Prior to forming JCP in 1997, Mr. Janes was the CEO of California Manufacturing Enterprises (CME), an aircraft parts manufacturing company he co-founded in 1977.
During the late 1990s, Mr. Janes divested his interests and formed JCP to capitalize on his extensive experience in the Aerospace and Defense industry. Mr. Janes has held various positions in industry associations including the Metal Treating Institute, the American Society for Metals, Precision Metal Manufacturing Association and the American Manufacturing Association. He has also been active in numerous civic organizations in Orange County.
During his business career, Mr. Janes maintained an active participant in the Naval Reserve and, in 1994, retired as a two-star admiral. Over his 36 years of service, he has held numerous commands, including his most recent assignment as Commander Military Sealift Pacific and Far East. He also served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Naval Reserve for Nationwide Automation of Reserve Personnel Management.
On April 7, 2019, Board of Chairman Emeritus David A. Janes, Sr. passed away.
- Chapman University – Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees
- Argyros College of Business and Economics, Chapman University - Board of Counselors
- Brandman University – Chairman, Board of Regents
- DoD Employer Support of National Guard Reserves – National Chairman (Emeritus)
- DoD Advisory Board for Employer Relations – Chairman (Emeritus)
- Harvard University Executive Program (attended)
- University of Wisconsin, Bachelor of Science, Economics
- FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, 79


text:
Madhavan-Kangana in 'Tanu Weds Manu 2'
Actors R Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut, the lead pair of 'Tanu Weds Manu', are all set to take the hit romantic comedy ahead in its sequel, to be helmed by Aanand L Rai.
The 2011 film was the love story of an NRI and a feisty girl (Kangana) from Uttar Pradesh, who does not believe in arrange marriages and wants to settle down with her lover Jimmy Shergill but later falls for Madhavan's quiet charms.
Now Rai is working on the sequel. There were rumours of Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma doing the film, but the filmmaker denies it and confirms the presence of the original lead actors in the second installment.
"There is a sequel, it's in the system...the plan is still on. I don't know when it will go on floors. If its happening it will happen with same star cast -- Madhavan and Kangana will go ahead with the franchise. The film is incomplete without them," Rai told reporters.
He also made it clear that there is no scope of a sequel to recent romantic-drama 'Ranjhaana' that had Dhanush and Sonam Kapoor in the lead.
"For me the film is over. I don't think I can make a sequel to it now... whatever we wanted to tell we have told it all," he said.